I have very much appreciated the daily devotionals and all the people that have been involved with it. It has been a blessing to me and I’m sure to you as well.

When I think about what to share, I find myself to be more comfortable sharing parts of my life that I sometimes feel others need to hear, myself included. This of course comes with some level of fear as I can feel inadequate in what is being said and how it may be received. I have learned not to fear these things but rather hope and pray that the words written come from a sense of what God is calling me to do. I have learned that when God calls you to do something, it will happen whether you like it or not ... it just may take more time than you initially thought. 

One of the things some friends and I have been doing are “sanity checks.” We will text each other a few times a week and ask where the other person is at on a scale of 1-10. This is a simple way of checking in and seeing how the other person is doing. If the number is on the lower end, we will ask why and how we can be of assistance. I’ll be honest and say my answers are typically on the high end as I feel like I’ve been doing okay. I also never want to be a person with a low number because I don’t want to give an explanation of why it’s lower. I’ve always been someone who hates it when others feel sorry for me. It’s great to have someone try and share in your pain. The reality is, when people feel sorry for me, it often makes me feel worse as I don’t want to be a burden to them.

Can I be honest with you? I’m not doing great. Can I be honest again? I think that’s okay to not be doing great. I don’t think I need to pretend to be happy when I’m not. I don’t want to overdo do it, but I need to give myself permission to not be okay. Do you need that freedom? Are you trying to convince yourself to be happy when you’re not? Something my Father in Law would say was “don’t feel bad about being sad.” When we give ourselves the freedom to not be okay, it allows us to be honest with ourselves and ask for help in those areas. It’s okay for you to call a friend or family member and ask for prayer and comfort. It’s okay to be honest with God and tell him of your struggles. When I hide these things and pretend things are good when they’re not, it tends to prolong the feeling of unhappiness. I had a friend once tell me “if you keep it to yourself, you’re the only one going to battle. If you open yourself up to others, you can have an army of believers praying for you and fighting the battle WITH you.”  What a comfort that is.

As a church we are a body and we need to come along side each other, which we often do. The flip side of that is that we need to be willing to share our joys and our struggles so that we can ^“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” (Roman 12:15) There’s no shame is asking for help.

I love the comfort we find in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27:

One Body with Many Members

"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

"For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

"The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

"Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it."

We cannot do life alone, we need each other. We are the body of Christ.

Now I can assure you, in writing this, I do not feel alone, I do not feel hopeless. I have reached out to a few people and said “Hey, I need some prayer.” Guess what? No one said no. There is freedom in knowing that the people you surround yourself with want what’s best for you and will do what they can to support you. If you don’t have someone, I can speak with confidence that if you contact the church, someone will connect with you and help you out.

I mentioned earlier, I’m not doing great. For me, it’s my anxiety. I had a panic attack on Wednesday that was significant, one of the worst ones I’ve had in a while. Given my current job in supporting people with special needs and having a wife who is nurse, it’s a tad stressful. My anxiety being high is no surprise, but it is yet another reminder that I can’t do this on my own. In not doing it on my own, it requires me to be vulnerable and open myself up. There’s no shame in that.

During this time, are you putting on a mask? Sometimes that’s good, but it’s okay to take it off and be vulnerable. Permission granted. We at WLA are part of a community that wants to lift each other up and support each other. Don’t be afraid to reach out. There is freedom that comes with it. Allow us to be prayer warriors for and with you. It’s a blessing for others to be able to pray for you.  

The song I have chosen to attach to this “Call on the Name” by Vertical Worship and it comes out of Psalm 116 as well as a few other passages.

Verses 1, 2 of Psalm 116 state:

I love the Lord, because he has heard
    my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
    therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

This could mean you calling out to God yourself or it could mean you talking to a friend and them joining you in prayer as you call out to him. Either way the message is clear. We cannot do this on our own.

 

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